In a recent conversation, a respectable gentleman accused me of coming dangerously close to “bibliolatry.” Bibliolatry means “worshiping the book,” and the term usually refers to the practice of revering the Bible too highly. According to Wikipedia (that never-ending fount of contemporary insight), the term may characterize “either extreme devotion to the Bible or the doctrine of biblical inerrancy.”
I’ve heard such comments before, particularly from young people who want to follow God but who don’t want to study the Bible. The thinking goes like this: “The Bible is good, but you shouldn’t focus on it too much.”
Now the argument isn’t always sophomoric. Some time ago, the evangelical philosopher J.P. Moreland delivered a paper to the Evangelical Theological Society, arguing against “the idea that the Bible is the sole source of knowledge of God, morality, and a host of related important items.” He’s concerned with Christians who take the Bible to be “the sole source of authority for faith and practice. Applied to inerrancy, the notion is that the Bible is the sole source of such knowledge and authority.” Moreland clearly believes the Bible to be both inerrant and final in its authority. But, he says, if Christians consider it to be the only authority for faith and practice—that is, for the Christian life—they are “over-committed” to it.
So is it possible (and unhelpful) to focus too much on the Bible?
The Easy Answer
Of course it’s possible.
Jesus often clashed with other teachers who focused too much on the Bible. In one noteworthy example, he staked the following claim:
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
John 5:39-40
In one sense, Jesus hoped they’d focus more on him than on the Scriptures.
The Difficult Answer
But in another sense, Jesus clearly drew attention to himself by drawing more attention to the Scriptures. Notice the immediately preceding verses:
And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
John 5:37-38
Jesus accused the Bible-focusers of not hearing God’s voice. They didn’t see his form. He had already borne witness to the Messiah in his word, but that word hadn’t landed in their hearts. They read the Bible. They studied it and memorized it. But they didn’t believe in Jesus, its principal subject.
Jesus goes on to say, “I do not receive glory from people…How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God” (John 5:41-44)? They loved the Bible because it gave them glory. They could win at Bible Trivia. People spoke highly of their knowledge and authority in spiritual matters. They had earned titles of honor and respect, and, as a result, the general public revered them
Jesus wanted them to seek glory, just not their own. They should seek the glory that comes from the only God. That is, they should seek Jesus, the one who came from God (John 5:37) and revealed his glory (John 1:14). And how would they do this? Not by abandoning the Scriptures but by reading them more—more clearly, more frequently, more passionately. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46).
In other words, the solution for “over-commitment” to the Bible is not to reduce your commitment to the Bible. The solution is to take your commitment to the Bible in a different direction: toward Jesus.
In that sense, it’s not possible to focus too much on the Bible. Not unless it’s possible to focus too much on Jesus.
Praise God. Thank you for this response. Someone once asked me whether I want to be a fanatic because it is as though I seemed to be focused on the Word too much. Well, the truth is that I want to do God’s will 100%. I want to be just like my Father in Heaven, like my Brother Jesus. The Word of the Lord says, be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. I just want to please my Father in Heaven and do everything He wants me to because He has done everything for me, not people. I want to walk into all that He has for me and live out His purpose in my life, Praise the Lord!
Amen to that! This has really helped me because at times I’m in the bible alot and I have seasons where I don’t read daily and I hate that. I certainly don’t want to glorify myself with knowing the word of God but I realize that that is exactly what I’ve been doing. I lead prayer at my church very often and I would get scared that God would not be with me as i lead prayer so i would memorize scripture so that i wouldnt be alone in prayer and i did get acalades from ppl all the time when I prayed and I will admit I enjoyed that but I also would do that because I was scared that my Pastors would get on to me if I didnt pray more of the word and stay out of my emotions. Which they would tell us to do when we lead prayer. I have had my Pastor take the mike from me before because he said I was praying wrong and he didnt like it. I was scared to pray from then on but I prayed anyway because I knew there was an anointing on my life to pray and intercede. My Pastor knew too and he always had me lead prayer, he never told me to sit down, he knew what God had put inside me.i dont ever want to try and steal Gods glory.
The truth is that there is so much around that can draw me away from the Father, there is so much that I myself need to learn and overcome as a believer. I should therefore be careful, wise, just like my Father in Heaven, just like my Jesus. In short, the Christian walk is not a joke, we have to choose by God’s grace to do His will, we have to choose by His grace, to listen to and obey the Spirit. We are His! Praise God!
Thank you for wrestling with and addressing this accusation/excuse that I believe is a temptation to which faithful Christians need to say, “Get thee behind me, Satan”!
I propose that as long as you are focusing on the Bible for the right reason, you can’t focus on it too much.
If you aren’t focusing on the Bible for the right reason, then you shouldn’t be focusing on it at all, and it will likely do more harm than good. (Cf. 1 Cor. 8:1b “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”)
God gave us His Word to train us in His ways that we live to His glory. 2 Timothy 3:16 “…that the man of God should be thoroughly equipped unto every good work.” There is NO good work for which the Word of God can’t and doesn’t equip me for.
If you are focusing on the Bible for this reason, you can’t focus on it too much.
The man in Psalm 119 focused on the Bible more than most ever have and ever will. Read Psalm 119. Almost every verse is about God’s Word in some way. I don’t think anyone could ever accuse that man of worshipping the book rather than the author. He was madly in love with God and living unto His glory. He wanted more and more of God so he devoured God’s Word.
The writer of Psalm 119 loved the book because (and ONLY because) he loved the Author. “Bible-idolatry” was not a temptation for him, because he knew what the Bible was and what it was given for. He couldn’t get enough and that was a good thing.
God gave us His Word that we might have a relationship with Him. The deeper we invest ourselves in His Word the more we grow in our relationship with God. See Colossians 1:1-11. Paul prayed for the Colossians (who were already growing in faith, love, and hope) to experience further levels of growth and transformation THROUGH THEM BEING ENLIGHTENED MORE TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.
When Jesus said, “Ye search the Scriptures…” Jesus was pointing out that their searching of the Scriptures neglected the key of knowledge which was himself (see Luke 11:52 spoken of the lawyers that knew the law but missed the whole point). “Taking away the key” and focusing on the Bible will be fruitless, even counterproductive.
However, in all the many sections encouraging deep, consistent, faithful Bible study (e.g. Psalm 1, Psalm 119, 1 Peter 2:2 as newborn infants desire the sincere milk of the Word, etc.) nowhere are we warned of any dangers of doing that too much.
Is there a section in the Scriptures that I am missing where God warns us against the dangers of so-called, “Bible-idolatry”?
Any danger would lie in focusing on the Bible without knowing what you are focusing on and why.
If someone is focusing on the Bible in the wrong way, the solution is not “stop focusing on the Bible so much and focus on other things” rather the solution is “learn/remember what God’s Word is and why we should focus on it”.
Then, focus on it twice as much as before!
Thanks again, Peter. I really appreciate reading your articles. May God continue to bless your faithful efforts to promote knowing His Word.
P.S. I believe you have a typo. I think you meant to say the false argument proposed is: ““The Bible is good, but you CAN focus on it too much.”
Thanks for taking the time to write! And thanks for pointing out that last comment. It’s not a typo but intentional, meaning that the thinking is that you *shouldn’t* focus on it too much. I’ll change that can’t to shouldn’t to make it more clear.
Thanks so much for this article. I’d also add that in Jesus’ day, the Pharisees gained social credit and prestige for appearing pious. They liked the admiration they got from memorizing Scripture and being experts on it, even though they didn’t actually love their neighbor in action.
In our day, I would say that the very opposite is true. If you study and memorize Scripture, and you make this fact known among unbelievers, you will be hated, ridiculed, and scoffed at. So there most definitely is not social credit or prestige involved in it all at all, as far as I can see.
In the context of overdoing Scripture study among other believers, again, your motive is everything. If you get too legalistic with it, then I could easily see how you could look down your nose at other believers who aren’t as “holy” as you are since you diligently study the Scriptures 3 hours each day and they barely every open the book.
But again, this isn’t about the study of Scripture itself then is it? It’s about where your heart is and where your motives lie.
In our modern day and culture, so long as you approach reading Scripture with a humble heart, that is, one that seeks to love God and love people, I don’t think it’s possible to overdo it.
And truth be told, we all know, myself included, that the massive problem is not reading the Bible too much, it’s not reading it enough or at all!